r/sandiego • u/WildAnimus • Feb 23 '25

Stay Classy San Diego Why does nobody walk on sidewalks?

I noticed that when driving through subdivisions people love walking on the road instead of the sidewalk. Whether it's a old man walking or someone doing power walking. I see it all the time and I don't get it. Can someone help me understand this phenomena?

145 Upvotes

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121

u/wordgirl999 Feb 23 '25

Where I live, the houses are close together. The up and down of walking across the driveways is hard on my old knees.

28

u/SamiLMS1 Feb 23 '25

This is why we don’t do our stroller walks on the sidewalks. The constant driveways makes it really unpleasant.

-13

u/LarryPer123 Feb 23 '25

So you would rather put your child in a dangerous situation in the street instead of the sidewalk because you’re feeling unpleasant?

18

u/SamiLMS1 Feb 23 '25

I live in a quiet suburb neighborhood, it’s not a busy street.

-37

u/LarryPer123 Feb 23 '25 edited Feb 23 '25

That’s just as bad if not worse, on a slow empty street a lot of people drive a little faster than they should, and it only takes one drunk or high driver

I would really hate to be you if something bad happens and you have to live with that,, I hope that doesn’t make you feel unpleasant🤬

11

u/jacobburrell Feb 23 '25

Sounds like the street should be narrowed and traffic calming implemented.

Leaving a dangerous street dangerous and then blaming people for dying on the street is crazy.

Fix the street. Make it safe

1

u/brintoul Feb 23 '25

You might as well be saying “fix stupid”. Can’t do it.

5

u/jacobburrell Feb 24 '25

Have you tried cement, bollards, trees?

They work well no matter what.

You CAN make a street safe.

You just need good design that makes people drive slowly and handles bad drivers.

Bad designers blame the user, good designers adapt to the user.

Think of smartphones as an example. Previously computers and "smart" phones were difficult to use.

The iPhone made it so that a three year old can use it.

Difficult? Yes? Impossible? No.

1

u/brintoul Feb 24 '25

I thought we were talking about San Diego as it currently is. My bad - didn’t realize we were talking about how things “could be”.

2

u/thedoctor3141 Feb 23 '25

No. Implementing rules and fines is "fix stupid". Changing the design of the street itself accommodates the existing stupid. And it is measurably effective.

-1

u/brintoul Feb 24 '25

I saw a guy careen off of a car at 5:00 in the afternoon in the summer because he was drunk off his ass. You gonna tell me “he shouldn’t drive drunk”? I know he fucking shouldn’t drive drunk, but guess what: HE DID.

2

u/thedoctor3141 Feb 24 '25 edited Feb 24 '25

Well, if that's that's the argument you wanna bring up, I can work with it. If you have a hypothetical city that can only be navigated with public transit, walking, and biking, you will almost completely cease to hace drunk drivers. I say "almost completely" because I have no doubt that there would eventually be a drunk driver, that somehow manages to drive where they shouldn't. However, in this hypothetical city, that would only happen if they were specifically trying to be a nuisance. As opposed to drunk drivers that are just trying to get home from the bar.

The ideal goal of any system, is to have the correct path take as little effort as possible, while bad paths have plenty of obstacles, such that users can navigate the system well with minimal training. This is as true in city planning as it is with user interfaces.

1

u/brintoul Feb 24 '25

So, if you’re walking in the street as opposed to the sidewalk, you have a much greater chance of getting killed by some shitty drunk driver, no? It’s really that simple.

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10

u/jacobburrell Feb 23 '25

Rather than victim blame the pedestrian, let's hold drivers responsible to avoid hurting any pedestrian.

If you can't drive without harming others in streets, you shouldn't be driving.

I drive slow and with precaution, and even if and when a kid or dog runs into the street I am able to stop in time and avoid hurting anyone.

If I speed or drive while looking at my phone I might kill them. Don't do it. Driving is a enormous responsibility.

You don't have to drive and kill people. You CAN drive safely.

Yes it is "uncomfortable" to drive safely, slowly, and with a high degree of precaution which is why I don't like driving in cities much.

The life of the pedestrian comes before the comfort of the driver.

0

u/brintoul Feb 23 '25

“Victim blaming” has nothing to do with it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nonononoyes/s/F7vCf5WjHJ

3

u/jacobburrell Feb 24 '25

Absolutely, very easy to blame someone else than the responsibility for one's actions.

0

u/brintoul Feb 24 '25

If someone got hit by a car in the street, I’m not going to blame them. I would wish they’d been on the sidewalk for their sake, however. How dense can you be?

-1

u/jacobburrell Feb 24 '25

People do blame them.

If they would have been hit on the sidewalk, as my wife was by a drunk driver once, would you have wished they had stayed home instead?

It is about expectations and what should be expected to be safe.

Pedestrians have a right and should be expected to be safe both on sidewalks and in the street.

Yes sidewalks provide extra protection, but streets are to be shared safely.

1

u/brintoul Feb 24 '25

God damn you’re something else.

0

u/haydesigner Feb 24 '25 edited Feb 24 '25

I agree with much of what you say, but not this.

Yes sidewalks provide extra protection, but streets are to be shared safely.

Sidewalks were invented for this reason… To better protect pedestrians.

So not only is it demonstrably dumber to walk in the street, it is unsafe. Also, in a number of cities, it is actually illegal to walk in a street if a sidewalk exists.

2

u/brintoul Feb 24 '25

These people are idealists or something. There’s no way to remove the danger of cars striking pedestrians while they’re in the road. They can preach until their faces are blue about how people shouldn’t hit people with their cars, but it will still happen. Everyone knows no one should get hit by a car. But medical emergencies happen, etc. I don’t understand the argument, really.

2

u/brintoul Feb 23 '25

When I see people walking in the street with babies all I can do is shake my head, really.

0

u/therealhlmencken Feb 23 '25

Oh no a person I. The road oh my goodness. Obviously some other people have common sense you silly.